Disclaimer: Just to cover my back, be aware that TFL probably won't like you doing this. So get permission first etc.

I'm pretty certain that ever since BoingBoing featured Chris Woebken dissolving an oyster card to get at its juicy inner workings (a RFID chip stuck to a loop of wire, fact fans) geeks across London have been attempting it.

As such I'm rather late to the party on this one. The rather splendid SciencePunk beat me too it with this grand attempt codenamed Operation Ladybird. Nevertheless I knew I must attempt this epic journey too.

1) ~ 400ml of Nail Varnish Remover - I bought 2 bottles of Boots own brand at 99p each. I could probably have got by with one.2) An oyster card - I bought a prepay one for £3, though I got a funny look when I didn't want to top it up there and then.3) A jar big enough to contain the oyster card - I bought a jar of beetroot (urgh) for 72p.

Total Cost: £5.70

It's simple enough process, fill the jar with the nail varnish remover, dump the oyster card in it. Put the top back on and wait for a few hours. Brilliantly, I picked up bunch of PS2 eyetoy cameras on clearance (£1.99 each from Gamestation) which means I now own a webcam! (Aside: they can be turned into pretty good webcams once you've installed macam, and they appear to be quite easy to break apart so I'm turning one into an infrared camera next). So I'm proud to present Skeptobot's first ever youtube video. Time-lapse footage of my Oyster Card dissolving.

Notes on the vid: I've never used a webcam/youtube/imovie before so sorry for the quality. The smudge on the card that appears about half way in is from when I poked it with a pencil, and the paint on the pencil stripped off. It's best to keep checking the card, first it will get soft, then after about 90 mins it folded over and I was able to peel off the first layer of the card, exposing one side of the chip. Then I cut the centre of the card out with scissors (so there was less plastic for the acetone to work on). I put these pieces next to the jar, and I was quite suprisied when the time-lapse showed them wobbling about.

Then after another half hour or so, the other side of the plastic loosened enough to peel that away exposing the intact chip and antenna. Nail Varnish Remover takes longer that SciencePunks miltary grade stuff but I think a more dilute source of acetone is more effective than SciencePunks military grade stuff.

The chip itself

The chip still attached to the loop of wire acting as it's antenna

So tomorrow morning I'll attempt to use this naked oyster card to journey to work. If I'm successful (and not arrested for terrorism) I'll have to decide what my new oyster card will be. So far I'm thinking either stitching it into my watch, or wrapping it around a magic wand (though that might kill the signal).

UPDATE - It still works!This is how the oyster card currently looks (I've put it back inside it's wallet to keep it safe and so I don't look too weird):

Interesting - can you please let me know if it actually works though? I saw this on Boing Boing a couple of days ago as well and don't actually know of anyone who's managed to get through the gates on it. As you didn't put any top up on your Oystercard - will the £3 be enough in itself to get you through the gates?

I have an annual card and don't use prepay plus don't know enough about how the whole prepay stuff works.

But if it does work I'll be all over this like a rash.

Thanks to gia's tweet which is how I found your post in the first place.

Public Service Announcement: Incidentally, don't try and cut cocaine with an oyster card. Whatever it's cut with contains a solvent that attacks the plastic, and you end up with these indelible white craters all over it.

Still, I suppose that's a reminder of what you're doing to your septum and your brain cells at the same time

"Still, I suppose that's a reminder of what you're doing to your septum and your brain cells at the same time."

Whilst I'm not endorsing the use of narcotics, I'd like to point out that the solvents in question react with the plastic oyster card entirely differently from the innards of ones head. If you dip your hand in acetone it won't dissolve, unlike an oyster card.

PPS. Great idea! Slightly niche using a wand, but I like the idea. Surgically implanted in your right fore-arm? The possibilities are endless...

The wand was just a throwaway idea that people seemed to like (it's that or a Sonic bloody Screwdriver out of, off of Dr Who).

But my main goal in the end is to stitch it into my watch so I don't forget the blasted thing all the time and be forced to pay ridiculous paper fares.

Oh and (obligatory self plug) some of you might be interested in the rest of the site - it's some not very coherent ramblings about why God's a dick, religion is silly, pseudo-science is a bag of wank and why Gillian McKeith is a loathsome creature.

The fact that the antenna is ready-made into a loop would suggest to me that the way to go is not with a wand, but with a COCK RING! Just imagine Monday morning in the queues, swiping your old man over the top of the machine - sheer genius! In the Soho area it could even be branded the "Blue Oyster" ;-)

Hmmm, either that or not long enough. I've done it twice now and both times I kept a close eye on it, opening it up and prodding it every so often. Both times the *front* of the card could be seen to be peeling away slightly. Then I took it out and could easily remove the front.

This exposed the front of the chip but *not the wire which was no wear to be seen. Dumping that half back into the solution for another 20 - 30 minutes should be enough to dissolve away the thin layer of plastic thats still infront of the wire. Which then came away easily, without any real resistance.

If you pull the chip out of the card too early you just tear the wire off.

Hope that helps, let me know how you go. I'm still working on the project - but real life is getting in the way.

Respect for posting the method. Today I was wearing my longboarding gloves with the card inside and apprearing to hack the batrriers with only my hand, and I thought about the possibilities of embedding the system into other things. Now you've given the method away, all sorts of mischief shall ensue!

Just tried this method, but managed to screw it up... Used the same brand of nail polish remover, but my card didn't seem to have wires inside it - when I peeled the top layer off, it looked as though the antenna was made from printed metal tracks instead of wires. So not sure what to try now instead? Anyone else come across this. The inner layer also had the numbers "4.5" printed on it...

Sometime the first layer you can peal off doesn't remove enough to expose the arial, but you can normally see it through the thinner plastic remaining. Leaving it in the solution for longer should eventually expose it.

It's also worth cutting out the central region after a while so that the acetone has less plastic to work on - though that can make removing the card a bit more difficult.

Just tried this method, but managed to screw it up... Used the same brand of nail polish remover, but my card didn't seem to have wires inside it - when I peeled the top layer off, it looked as though the antenna was made from printed metal tracks instead of wires. So not sure what to try now instead? Anyone else come across this. The inner layer also had the numbers "4.5" printed on it..."

hi lave i just tried it and got left with the rubber in the midle. as it was very flexible i thought that i wouldnt need to get the coil and chip out. however where the copper attaches to the chip and then come out the other side about an inch i cut off about a half inch. should this affect it?

Interesting... I used Superdrug acetone-based nail polich semover, seemed to take an awful lot longer (4 hours or so for the card wrinkling and first peeling, overnight for the second)... I appear to have yet a third variation on the 'chip and antenna loop' design and location - smaller chip on periphery of card, with two distinct loop arms following around the edges of the card - set in a third, sandwiched plastic substrate. I should be able to trim it down to get a 'rubber band' strip which I can then insert into my tool of choice (Sonic Screwdriver in this case)...

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